1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic tube-type specimen container supply apparatus for automatically supplying tube-type specimen containers that are used to dispense a large number of specimens such as blood and urine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to dispense a large number of specimens such as blood and urine, a large number of tube-type specimen containers are required as slave specimen containers. If a user purchases tube-type specimen containers that are held in a rack, his or her running costs will increase. If a user purchases tube-type specimen containers that are not held in a rack, he or she needs to expend much effort to hold the specimen containers in a rack though the unit price of the specimen containers reduces. As one measure against this, a specimen container supply apparatus using a parts feeder has been in practical use. However, this apparatus is so noisy that it makes work environment much worse.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 07-213586 discloses an automatic specimen container supply apparatus. This apparatus is capable of removing specimen containers (test tubes), which are arranged in a hopper, one by one using a rotary drum. The rotary drum is located at the bottom of the hopper and is provided with a groove for removing the specimen containers.
The apparatus disclosed in the above Publication is a breakthrough in that it can remove specimen containers one by one. However, the apparatus cannot remove any specimen containers that are randomly inserted in the hopper. The specimen containers are removed downward through an outlet formed in the lower part of the hopper by the rotary drum. If, therefore, a large number of specimen containers concentrate in the outlet, the outlet is likely to be clogged by the weight of the specimen containers themselves.